美国国家公共电台 NPR Unlikely Allies Join Fight To Protect Free Speech On The Internet

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Silicon¹ Valley tech firms are pushing back on hate groups, deleting them from search results, refusing to host their websites and choking off their ability to raise money online. NPR's Laura Sydell reports that some on the far right now want the government to better protect their First Amendment² freedoms online.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE³: Most people in the U.S. would find Richard Spencer's political views reprehensible⁴. He's a white supremacist.

RICHARD SPENCER: I would ultimately support a homeland for white people. I think that ethnically⁵ or racially defined political borders are legitimate⁶. Absolutely.

SYDELL: After Donald Trump⁷ was elected president, this moment of Spencer giving a speech at a white supremacist meeting made headlines as the room rose to give a Sieg Heil, the Nazi⁸ salute⁹.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SPENCER: Hail Trump. Hail our people. Hail victory.

(APPLAUSE)

SYDELL: But it is the First Amendment that inspires Spencer now. Spencer was also a speaker at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. In the wake of the violence that occurred there, The Daily Stormer, an online neo-Nazi publication, was blocked by a series of major tech companies. Its domain¹⁰ name was taken away by GoDaddy. Google stopped linking to it. Facebook took down links to any article it published. It can't use PayPal anymore.

SPENCER: Getting kicked off Facebook or YouTube or PayPal, whatever, this is effectively losing the ability to speak. It is actually a more powerful form of censorship than were a government to censor¹¹ it.

SYDELL: But companies like Google and Facebook are not covered by the First Amendment. The First Amendment only applies to the government. But Spencer feels these companies are so large, the government needs to step in just as it did with broadcasting.

SPENCER: These are the free speech platforms in the 21st century. So if we're going to regulate all of these 20th century ways of expressing ourselves, then why are we so loath¹² to regulate the 21st century ones, which are much more relevant and much more vital?

SYDELL: Spencer has some unlikely allies on this.

ROBERT MCCHESNEY: I put myself as on the left. I would say I'm a Democratic socialist¹³.

SYDELL: Robert McChesney is a communications professor at the University of Illinois. He's actually written books about the threat of fascism.

MCCHESNEY: So I think Richard Spencer and I wouldn't agree on hardly anything. But on the issues of whether these companies should be able to control what I can and can't hear, I think on principle, we have to be together on that. All Americans should across the political spectrum¹⁴.

SYDELL: Right now Google has more than 80 percent of the online search market, according to Net Market Share. Google and Facebook combined have 77 percent of the online ad market. Seventy-nine percent of Americans on the internet have a Facebook account, according to Pew Research. McChesney says that these companies can make a little change to an algorithm and it will affect what everyone sees.

MCCHESNEY: The research shows that if Facebook or Google changes the algorithm just slightly and puts a different type of story in there, it affects the way people think about the world. Their internal research demonstrates this.

SYDELL: And because these are private companies, they don't have to reveal their algorithms or what changes they make to them. And right now most Americans may agree with the choice to censor the Richard Spencers of the world. But...

MCCHESNEY: I mean, what's to stop them from turning around and saying, well, we don't like these people who are advocating gay rights, we don't like these people who are advocating workers' rights?

SYDELL: Nothing. And that's why both alt-right leader Richard Spencer and left-leaning professor Robert McChesney think it's time for the government to step in. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

1 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

2 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 reprehensible   

adj.该受责备的

参考例句：

• Lying is not seen as being morally reprehensible in any strong way.人们并不把撒谎当作一件应该大加谴责的事儿。
• It was reprehensible of him to be so disloyal.他如此不忠，应受谴责。

5 ethnically   

adv.人种上，民族上

参考例句：

• Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句

6 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

7 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

8 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

9 salute   

vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮

参考例句：

• Merchant ships salute each other by dipping the flag.商船互相点旗致敬。
• The Japanese women salute the people with formal bows in welcome.这些日本妇女以正式的鞠躬向人们施礼以示欢迎。

10 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

11 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

12 loath   

adj.不愿意的；勉强的

参考例句：

• The little girl was loath to leave her mother.那小女孩不愿离开她的母亲。
• They react on this one problem very slow and very loath.他们在这一问题上反应很慢，很不情愿。

13 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

14 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。